Without further ado, here are my picks for this year’s Hockey East awards.
First off, the All-Hockey East team:
Forwards
Bobby Butler – New Hampshire
Stephane Da Costa – Merrimack
Gustav Nyquist – Maine
Defense
Justin Braun – Massachusetts
Blake Kessel – New Hampshire
Goaltender
Carter Hutton – Lowell
The forwards were very easy picks. Defense was harder. I really admire how much Kessel stepped up his game this year and along with Butler he has been a huge part of what UNH was able to accomplish. As for Braun, he’s simply the best two-way defenseman in the league. Positioning on defense? Check. Make the hit when needed? Check. Knock the puck loose with a poke check? Check. Lead an offensive rush? More often than you’d think. Put the team on his back and score a bunch of goals in the most important games of the year. Check and checkmate. Carter Hutton was also a pretty easy pick. Imagine if the guy got some goal support.
Now onto the awards themselves.
Rookie of the Year: Stephane Da Costa
Like there was any other choice…
Coach of the Year: Dick Umile
Mark Dennehy certainly deserves some consideration, but at the beginning of the year I wasn’t even sure UNH would qualify for home ice and they ended up winning the whole thing.
Player of the Year: Bobby Butler
The numbers speak for themselves. I’m sure I speak for all UMass fans when I say his knack for huge goals against the Minutemen will not be missed.
Ok, and now onto my fearless Hockey East playoff predictions:
Lowell at Maine: Lowell 2-1
Sorry, but I’m not sure what is going on with this Maine team right now. The question mark in net is way too big for the Black Bears and yet that’s the greatest strength for the River Hawks. I think Mullins favorite Dave Wilson is good for one game for Maine but that’s it.
Merrimack at Boston University: BU 2-1
This one is going to be very close. Close like UMass took Northeastern to OT in Game 3 of last year’s quarterfinals, close. It’s too bad because Merrimack at the Garden would be extremely cool to experience.
Massachusetts at Boston College: BC 2-0
Believe me, I’ll be there rooting on the Minutemen, but BC is just playing too well right now. I see two very tight games, but both in the Eagles favor.
Vermont at New Hampshire: UNH 2-0
Should be an easy one for the Wildcats.
Semifinals
UNH over Lowell 3-1
BC over BU 4-1
Finals
BC over UNH 4-3
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James Marcou is listed as one of the ten best collegiate free agents drawing NHL interest by Hockey’s Future.
Dick Baker had a nice piece on the return of underrated Doug Kublin. He doesn’t get mentioned a lot, but he sure was missed.
Chris Capraro was traded to the South Carolina Stringrays of the ECHL.
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Going into the New England Prep season Avon Old Farms was supposed to be a pretty good, but not quite great, team. Then on the eve of the season they were able to add Mike Pereira who was looking to transfer from South Kent. Now the Winged Beavers are prep champions. The last Avon player to lead them to a championship and then move onto Amherst? Jon Quick.
Pereira had a goal and two assists in the 4-1 win over Northfield-Mount Hermon. An NHL scout in attendance remarked that Pereira very much stood out among his peers. NMH’s Nick Gordon, who took a visit to UMass last fall, had the lone goal for the Hoggers.
Out west (not the valley, further) Conor Allen was named USHL Defensive Player of the Week, his second such honor this season. He had a goal, an assist, and a +4 rating in three games this past week.
Joel Hanley had a good weekend with a goal and two assists as the Newmarket Hurricanes took the first two games of their semifinal series.
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On Saturday I headed over to Foxboro where the EJHL quarterfinals were being played. It offered me a chance to watch a few of the UMass recruits all in the course of a few hours.
The first game I watched featured Colin Shea and the Junior Bruins against the Bay State Breakers. You’ll remember I had a chance to watch Shea in November. First thing I noticed is that thankfully it looks like Shea has gotten a little bigger from that time before. He seems to have all the tools needed to be a Hockey East defenseman, he just lacks size. He still has a ways to go, but luckily he has time as well. Overall I liked what I saw. He seems to be a very good skater, forwards and backwards. Defensively he has good vision and positioning. He might be a little too aggressive and a couple times got caught too far behind the net. But overall he seems like a very smart defenseman. Offensively he seems like he has no problem jumping up on the play when necessary, especially on the power play. He still needs a lot of work on his slap shot.
The game itself was pretty crazy. It was 1-0 Bruins when I arrived but Bay State quickly scored three goals on Lowell recruit T.J. Massie to take the 3-1 lead. Massie looked absolutely horrible, commiting too early on one goal and trying to cheat laterally and leaving the post open for another. He was quickly pulled. It was nothing but scoring from there on with the Bruins eventually winning 8-6. As I was when I first saw the team play, I was very impressed by Justin Breton who ended up with a hat trick in the game. It still amazes me that he’ll be playing at Bentley instead of Hockey East. I was also impressed with UNH recruit Kevin Smith.
While that game was still going on the Green Mountain Glades took on the host South Shore Kings and the newest UMass recruit, Shane Walsh. Walsh appears to be a physical-type player who also adds some good offensive skill. He seemed to be a decent skater and brought some high energy to the ice during his shifts. I thought he showed good offensive vision and made some nice passes. He also displayed a nice slapshot that got some praise from the scouts standing around me. He played well defensively, especially on the forecheck and even made a nice disruption on the backcheck. His play seemed similar to Scott Crowder but may have the ability to contribute more on offense.
There were a couple other players that stood out for the Kings, especially BU recruit Charlie Coyle. He seems to have a ton of offensive skill and a couple times was able to go coast to coast for a shot on goal. Though there were times he probably should’ve passed the puck. Colgate recruit Chris Wagner also looked good.
I left that game early to watch Peter DeAngelo play for the Manchester Monarchs against the New York Applecore. Unfortunately I was only able to watch one period as I wanted to get back to listen to the game up at Maine. But I did like what I saw in that time. DeAngelo is definitely another small guy like James Marcou or T.J. Syner. He’s a centerman who was the primary option at faceoffs while on the ice and won the majority of them in the time I watched. He looked to have a very quick wrist shot and put one of them off the crossbar early on. He appeared to be a quick skater with good vision of the ice. In another aspect that reminded me of Syner was his strong forecheck skills. I wish I had more time to watch him because I liked what I saw in that first period. There was also a familiar face at the Monarchs-Applecore game as former Minuteman Jordan Virtue was a linesman for the EJHL matchup.
The EJHL quarters consist of two games series and all three of the UMass recruits moved on to this weekend’s semifinals at Holy Cross. In the end Shea had an assist on the weekend, Walsh had two goals and an assits to go with four PIM, and DeAngelo had an assist.
In addition to winning Hockey East POTW, Justin Braun has been named national player of the week by INCH.
The Collegian recaps the weekend that was.
Unfortunately, BC sent a message to UNH and the rest of Hockey East.
The Metrowest Daily News has a great read on the long road for Will Ortiz.
College Hockey News’ Adam Wodon has a look at the current state of the pairwise rankings. He mentions that UMass’ position is particularly precarious.
I made a small update to the Road Trip page in anticipation of this weekend’s return to Newton. Buff’s Pub is worth a visit, if you can find a table.
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Let’s take a quick look to see how I did in my preseason Hockey East predictions made back on September 30th:
1) Lowell – Yeah, I missed by quite a bit on this one as the River Hawks didn’t even win home ice much less the regular season title. Luckily I wasn’t the only one who overrated Lowell as they were picked 2nd on the coaches’ poll as well.
2) Boston College – Nailed this one. With BC’s talented freshman class it just seemed logical that once they got a few games under their belt they’d be flying by the end of the season.
3) Boston University – Got this one right as well, though never did I expect to see them get off to such a poor start.
4) Vermont – I knew Vermont would tumble from last year with the loss of Viktor Stalberg, but I didn’t think they’d fall as far as they did. Kicking your second leading scorer off the team doesn’t help either.
5) New Hampshire – Dick Umile did an amazing job this season leading UNH to the regular season title. I just did not think the talent was there. Bobby Butler and Blake Kessel really elevated their game to get the Wildcats the #1 seed.
6) Massachusetts – That’s right, exactly where I picked them. I’m not sure I was anticipating of an 0-for-February when I did though.
7) Northeastern – The Huskies only finished a point or two out of 7th, pretty close.
8) Maine – Never did I expect Maine to get home ice with this team. No wonder there are rumors that Tim Whitehead was given an extension, much to the chagrin of those crazy Maine fans.
9) Merrimack – I missed on this one. Congrats to Merrimack for their return to the playoffs. I had heard that Stephane Da Costa was good, but I never thought he’d be a superstar from the minute he first took the ice.
10) Providence – This one was easy.
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Check back tomorrow as I’ll have a lengthy update on some UMass recruits.
UMass’ successful weekend got them back in the Also Receiving Votes category in the USCHO poll, de facto #25. Denver and Miami are neck and neck for #1.
They also are receiving one whole vote in the USA Today poll.
But in the only poll that counts, the pairwise, the Minutemen miraculously find themselves in a four way tie for 16th, or firmly on the statistical bubble. An upset of BC this weekend would likely put them in very good position for an at-large berth even if they run into trouble at the Garden.
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I’m not sure what’s going on over at the Hockey East compound but no weekly award release yet. Check back later tonight for an update.
Update:
Well that was worth waiting for as Justin Braun won Hockey East Player of the Week for his 4/3 goals and 1/2 assists (still seems to be some confusion over that one goal from Friday). Paul Dainton was named a Top Performer. The release also notes that James Marcou is only two assists away from tying Rob Bonneau for most assists all time.
They did it. They actually did it. After taking off the entire month of February the UMass team was able to endure the long trip up to Orono and sweep the Black Bears and secure a tie for 6th place and the seventh seed in the Hockey East playoffs. I don’t think even the most optimistic UMass fans would’ve expected such a result. Granted, UMass was helped out by whatever this Scott Darling situation Maine has going on currently. It’s obvious that Shawn Sirman is not ready for primetime. I’m sure a lot of Maine fans are wondering why coach Tim Whitehead didn’t just start Dave Wilson last night considering he was in after Sirman allowed two goals on three shots. All in all this weekend, Sirman gave up 6 goals on 16 shots. Ouch.
But credit goes to the UMass team who played two very sound games with good effort both nights. They were led all weekend by none other than their captains, Justin Braun and Brett Watson. Though it appears now that they may have gone back and given one of Braun’s goals from Friday to Matt Irwin, but the captains still had a hand in 7 of this weekend’s 9 goals. There’s a reason why Toot Cahoon excluded these two when he talked about the late season swoon during the past week’s radio show. Paul Dainton also came up big this weekend after struggling for the late part of the season. Commentators John Hennessy and Brock Hines could not say enough good things about his performance last night.
So, has UMass gotten things together and are now poised to try to do some damage in the post-season? Tough to tell. It’s great that they were able to sort out, or at the very least temporarily put aside all that had ailed them for the past month or beyond. But Maine was already struggling going into the weekend and like said the goaltending situation did not help their chances. Boston College will be a completely different story. They are peaking right now and just took three points from regular season champion New Hampshire. The Eagles are 9-2-1 in their last 12 games and have their sights set on a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. UMass will have a little something to play for as well. The weekend sweep has put them back as a team under consideration for the pairwise and this morning they find themselves tied for 15th in the ranking. This could likely change by the end of the day since there are still three ECAC playoff games tonight as well as one game out west, but if UMass is somehow able to upset BC in the quarterfinals they’ll likely be in a good spot for one of the last at-large bids to the tournament.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Justin Braun
As I mentioned it appears (though box scores do not reflect it) that Braun lost one of his goals from Friday, though he picked up an assist. No problem, he’ll just have another multi-goal night again. In hockey it’s’ tough for a non-goaltender to put a team on their shoulder and lead a team to wins, but Braun appeared to do just that.
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The Republican recap has a bunch of quotes from the victorious captains.
Toot credits the captains and Dainton in the USCHO game story.
Once again WABI has a couple video highlights.
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Mike Pereira’s Avon Old Farms team plays for the New England prep championship today in Salem, NH. Pereira had a goal and an assist in their semifinal win over Nobles.
Conor Sheary’s season is over after his Cushing team lost to Berkshire in their semifinal.
I spent yesterday afternoon in Foxboro watching recruits Colin Shea, Peter DeAngelo, and Shane Walsh play in the EJHL playoffs. Look for my observations on those three later in the week.
UMass completes the sweep in Orono with a 4-3 win, once again led by captains Justin Braun and Brett Watson. Full recap will be tomorrow.
UMass finishes the regular season tied for 6th and will take on #2 seed Boston College at Conte Forum in a three game series next weekend.
Justin Braun (photo by Karen Winger)
Win and you’re in. Almost. That’s the scenario UMass has setup with their 5-2 win last night. I can’t comment too much on the game itself since I was unable to follow it. I love the fact that the Minutemen didn’t just come out and play ok, they seem to have dominated Maine from the get-go with a T.J. Syner goal just 52 seconds in helping them establish a 4-0 lead at one point. After all that has happened this week, it’s great to see the team come together. I’m also please to see that the defense had another good game and that Doug Kublin was back in the lineup. He’ll be needed tonight and hopefully beyond.
Let’s get straight to the playoff scenarios. UMass can finish anywhere from 6th to 9th at this point.
To finish 6th:
UMass beats Maine and
Providence beats Merrimack and
BU beats Northeastern
To finish 7th:
UMass beats Maine and
BU beats Northeastern
or
UMass beats Maine and
Lowell beats Vermont and
Providence beats Merrimack
To finish 8th:
UMass beats Maine and
Lowell beats Vermont
or
UMass beats Maine and
Providence beats Merrimack
or
Lowell beats Vermont
Northeastern beats BU
It is still possible for UMass to win tonight and not get in, due to the way mutli-team tiebreakers work.
Maine is likely not going to just roll over tonight. First off, it’s Senior Night (though they have only a few seniors). But more importantly, home ice is now on the line for Maine. If they lose and BU and Lowell both win then the Black Bears will be on the road for the quarters. I’m sure they’ll do everything they can to avoid that. It should be a dogfight tonight in Alfond.
Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Justin Braun
With the season on the line Justin Braun stepped up and notched two goals and an assist, finishing with a +4 on the night. That’s exactly what you want to see from your captain.
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Here’s how things looked for the Republican writer.
USCHO has a recap as well.
WABI has some video highlights.
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Yesterday I mentioned Alex Berry was sent down to Reading in the ECHL. Not entirely true. He did play a game for the Royals because they were short on bodies but has already been recalled back to the Marlies.
Massachusetts Minutemen 16 -16-0, (Hockey East 11 -14-0 9th)
vs
#17 Maine Black Bears 16 -13-3, (Hockey East 12- 10 -2 3rd)
So it all comes down to this. UMass could’ve been playing this weekend to secure home ice or perhaps for seeding the NCAA tournament. But unfortunately due to the disaster that was February they are now fighting for their playoff lives. They’re now forced to take at least two points, but likely more, from a very good Maine team in Orono. Granted the program has had success at Alfond at various times in the past decade, but it’s still quite an obstacle they’ve placed in front of themselves.
Maine does have something to play for this weekend. Dropping both games may drop them out of home ice and I’m sure they’d love to stick with the 3rd seed they’re currently holding onto. Plus, they are just on the outside looking in of an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament, currently 17th in the pairwise. The Black Bears have stumbled a bit as of late, losing four of their last 6, but they have been stellar in the home confines of Alfond Arena with a season record of 10-3-1.
Of course Maine has been all about offense this year, first in the league with 3.78 goals per game and the top power play at 28.9%. A good deal of that scoring is coming from sophomore Gustav Nyquist, the NCAA’s leading scorer with 54 points. There were reports that Nyquist did not practice earlier this week, but as I write this I haven’t heard anything beyond that. Sophomore Brian Flynn is tied with Nyquist for the team lead in goals with 17. Tanner House has also been a spark on offense with 31 points in 28 games.
Amazingly those three guys along with defenseman Ryan Hegarty are the only Black Bear players with a positive +/- rating this year. Defenseman Jeff Dimmen is even but everyone else on the team is a negative. So obviously, if you shut down that top line, there’s a good chance you’ll win. Will O’Neil has also done a decent job on the blueline, but overall this is one of the worst defensive corps in the league. In net Scott Darling has gotten the majority of the starts, but his numbers aren’t that good at 3.10 goals against and a .895 save percentage. Backup freshman Shawn Sirman has played a bit as of late but his numbers are a staggering 4.66 goals against and a .851 save percentage. Coach Tim Whitehead was quoted earlier in the week as saying he won’t decide who’ll be in net until gameday. Who knows, maybe UMass will get to see old friend Dave Wilson one last time.
It’s been a trying week for the Minutemen. They lost a heartbreaker to BC last Friday. On Saturday a number of the players were involved in a noise complaint involving the Amherst PD. And then their coach ripped the team (save for Brett Watson and Justin Braun) on his weekly radio show. Sounds like a great way to prepare to overcome the odds and find a way into the Hockey East playoffs in the far reaches of the great white north right? Well, Xs and Os no longer matter. I can write all about how this team needs to build off of the good effort seen last week. I can bring up again the need for the type of execution not seen since before Christmas. But it’s too late for all that. It’s time for these guys to be a team. That’s the only thing that will help UMass find a way into the playoffs. Live together, die alone.
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Dick Baker says the team shouldn’t expect any help into the playoffs nor do they deserve any.
The Collegian previews the weekend series as well as the Hockey East playoff situation as a whole.
Toot says it’s time to put up or shut up in the Gazette preview.
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Alex Berry has been sent down to the Reading Royals of the ECHL. Is there really that much difference between the Maple Leafs ECHL, AHL, and NHL teams?
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Colin Shea, Mike Pereira, and Conor Sheary will all be playing in the Spring Beantown Classic in Marlboro this month.
A FTT reader that goes by Bleedmaroon posted the link to this week’s hockey radio show over on UMasshoops.com and I thank him for that. In the first 10 minutes of the show Toot is very candid about his thoughts regarding this year’s annual swoon that the team is currently finds itself in. Take a listen yourself to the first segment of the show and hear what the coach had to say.
Now I have a lot of thoughts on this season, these players, this coaching staff, and this God-awful habit of collapsing late in the season. But I think that’s a blog for a later date, like once the season is finished. So therefore it might only be a few days away.
However here are some highlights from Toot’s rant:
“The BC game (and its effort) is great to talk about but I’m really dissatisfied with the bottom line product and something needs to be done about it.”
“We gotta find a way to produce goals and find a way to get the bottom line taken care of. There’s enough talent in this program for that to happen a whole lot more regularly than it’s happening right now. This isn’t a talent issue and I really don’t believe, giving due credit to Len Quesnelle and Red Gendron, that it’s a coaching issue. It’s a mentality issue. And it’s a mentality issue that I’ll be happy to talk about for this entire program. It’s been a mentality issue for a while but we didn’t realize it was this severe until this weekend.”
“Weak mindset and soft demeanor. We’ve got guys who are exception to the rules. I wouldn’t trade Brett Watson or Justin Braun for anything. They’re the two captains and that’s the leadership end of it and I’ve been applauding their leadership skills all year long. But sometimes some guys just stop listening. And sometimes some guys just have an idea that they have a better way. Or that they can compromise and do a little less than maybe what’s required. And they thought for sure that everything was okay once we got through January and then their real disposition set in and then we’re doing exactly what’s required. And it sickens me, quite frankly.”
“For three consecutive years it’s gone real easy (in the first half of the season). We were #5 in the country three years ago at Christmas. We were #12 in the country last year right after Christmas. And we were certainly in the top ten this year. And the second half of the year, althought it wasn’t January, we fought through that, February came around and we were 0-for-February. And so I have a real disdain for a lack of mental toughness and there’s no other explanation than this when you look at the whole profile of the team. The way we can skate, the way we can move it, and the type of athletes we have, for us to take a freefall as great as this it’s definitely mentality. And the only way to conquer that is we’ll do the best we can this weekend to make this weekend work and try to grow that into maybe taking a run. But I’ll tell you, you’re looking at a guy without a military background that’s going to learn a lot about the Navy Seals. This will be the hardest program to play in and to stay in if you’re an athlete. And if they don’t like it they shouldn’t come here. And that’s what they’ve got to look forward to from here on in as long as I’m here because this is nonsense.
Brock asks him when this came about and Toot replies:
“Well I don’t think I came to total recognition until this weekend. Until Saturday came around and we found out some news about things went on. And we were aghast with it. And there was nothing serious. Minor violations, but it spoke to the team mentality.”
One wonders if this last part is referring to unconfirmed rumors that four UMass players ran into problems with the Amherst police over a noise disruption complaint over the weekend.
“There’s a reason why I call this the men’s league in January and February. It is hard to go to practice, it’s hard to finish checks, it’s hard to block shots. It’s hard to do this week after week after week when you look around campus and you see other guys go to class and then on Friday and Saturday nights go off with their dates and go to parties and lighten up a little bit. It’s called entitlement. And this country really suffers from it and unfortunately this program has shown that there’s a little bit of entitlement. They’re great students. They’re great ambassadors away from the campus in terms of getting involved with some social services. I can’t take anything away from these guys on that front. They’ve measured up. That’s the culture we’ve tried to create. But now we’re talking about Division I Hockey East competitive athletes. Are you in Hockey East just to be in it? Or are you in it to succeed and win games? And that’s where the mental toughness and and the committment to stick-to-it-iveness has to stay in place.”
Like I said, I have a lot of thoughts about Toot and this team but I really want to hold off on a real season recap until after the season is over. So I’m going to refrain from now. But I’m sure when that time comes I’ll be referring back to Toot’s rant.
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In maybe a bit of good luck for the Minutemen, Rachel Lenzi, the Maine beat-writer for the Portland Press Herald, tweeted today that NCAA leading scorer Gustav Nyquist didn’t practice today for the Black Bears for reasons unknown. What that means for the weekend I don’t know. Speaking of Rachel Lenzi, due to to prior committment (i.e. out celebrating the end of my dismal real job and the subsequent new career beginnings) I won’t be able to give game updates for Friday on Twitter. But Rachel does a great job with her in-game tweets, so follow her if you want to follow along to this key game. I’ll likely be tweeting on Saturday though.
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On the heels of his silver medal, Jon Quick set the franchise record for wins for the Kings with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday. Congrats!
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Both Mike Pereira’s Avon team and Conor Sheary’s Cushing team were victorious yesterday in the first round of the prep playoffs. Both had a goal each in their matches. Sheary added an assist. They’ll now move on to the semifinals of their respective divisions on Saturday.
Jonathan Quick became just the third UMass hockey player to win an Olympic medal on Sunday. Quick joins Justin McCarthy and John Lyons from the 1924 United States team as silver medalists. Tommy Pöck played for Team Austria in 2002.
Quick only dressed in one game and did not play a minute, but Brian Burke did not put him on the team to try to lead the team to the gold. Besides, Ryan Miller nearly did that himself. No, Quick was on the team with 2014 and 2018 in mind. If he’s able to secure a spot on those teams he’ll already have the experience of the Olympics behind him and all the hoopla that goes with it. Hopefully if he’s able to make those squads it’ll be with the expectation of playing time and he can concentrate on taking on the best of the world rather than being overwhelmed by the spectacle itself.
Congratulations to Jon.
You can see him and his teammates during the medal ceremony in this photo gallery from NBC. Here are Jon’s thoughts on the Olympics thanks to the LA Kings website.
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Both Conor Sheary and Mike Pereira have been named New England Prep All-Stars as voted on by the league’s coaches.
Sheary had a great ending to his regular season, scoring four goals for Cushing in a 10-3 win over Rivers. He finished 6th in the prep league in scoring with 28 goals and 40 assists in 29 games. Pereira finished 11th in the league in scoring with 25 goals and 33 assists. Sheary’s Cushing team is the #1 seed in their prep level’s tournament while Pereira’s Avon Old Farms is the #7 seed in the higher level.
Eric Filiou finished his regular season. He ended up with 12 goals and 15 assists in 45 games, 0.6 points per game. Though he missed games with mono, this is still well down from his 0.8 PPG the year before and the 1.2 PPG he put up the year before. Filiou’s Penticton Vees are the #2 seed for the Interior Conference in the BCHL playoffs and currently lead their opening series 2-0.
Joel Hanley’s team is in playoff mode as well. Hanley missed a good chunk of the regular season with a broken leg but his 5 goals and 15 assists in 23 games was still ahead of his per game pace of the year before. He has a goal and an assists through 8 playoff games.
UMass’ three EJHL recruits will all be in action this weekend in Foxboro as the playoffs start. Shane Walsh ended up tied for 8th in the league in scoring with 22 goals and 37 assists in 45 games. Peter DeAngelo had 15 goals and 15 assists on the season in 45 games. Defenseman Colin Shea scored 6 goals and 23 assists in 44 games.
Kevin Boyle was back in action this past weekend for the AJHL’s New Jersey Rockets with mixed results. In the first game he only gave up one goal on 30 shots but the next night gave up 5 on 15. Boyle ends the regular season with a goals against of 2.71 and save percentage of .913. Probably not the AJHL debut he was hoping for. I think it’s likely the coaching staff has him play an additional year of juniors before coming to UMass.
I wrote about Danny Federico a while ago from the time I went to see Shea and the Junior Bruins, impressed by his play. He’s heading to Quinnipiac to play hockey. It’s unknown if UMass was looking at him.
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Last week I blogged about Petie Von Rosenvinge, the Junior Bruin goaltender who accepted a lacrosse scholarship at UMass. According to this article, if he can he’s going to try to walk-on to the hockey team like Matt Gedman did last year.
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Here’s my shot at UMass’ playoff scenarios. If I’ve screwed them up (a good possibility) please leave a comment with your understanding of the different outcomes.
If UMass is swept or ties one game:
See you at the Reverse Raffle!
If UMass splits they need:
Providence to sweep Merrimack OR
Lowell to sweep Vermont
If UMass wins and ties they need:
Providence to sweep Merrimack OR
Lowell to sweep Vermont OR
Vermont to sweep Lowell OR
BU to sweep Northeastern OR
Northeastern to sweep BU OR
Lowell to beat and tie UVM OR
Providence to beat and tie Merrimack
If UMass sweeps:
This is where it gets pretty complicated. I believe the only way they cannot make it under this scenario is if UVM took 3 points from Lowell, BU and Northeastern split, and Merrimack took 3 points from Providence. In that case there would be a five way tie at 30 points and UMass would only own the tie-breaker against Lowell, thus making them the first team eliminated in the tie-breakers.
Playoffstatus.com puts UMass’ chances as follows:
6th place – 5%
7th place – 8%
8th place – 16%
9th place – 71%
